The Sprig of Thyme

Melody - Seq. by Ron Clarke

Collected from Lancashire in the 1800s

Come all you tender girls
That flourish in your prime
Beware, beware keep your garden fair
|: Let no man steal your thyme. :|

2. I had a sprig of thyme
It flourished night and day
Till at length there came a false young man
|: And stole my thyme away. :|

3. And now my thyme is gone
And I can plant no new
And in every place where my thyme did grow
|: Is overrun with rue. :|

4. O rue it is a running root
It flourishes night and day
I wish I was in that young man's arms
|: That stole my thyme away. :|

5. O come you false young men
Don't leave me to complain
The grass that's trodden underfoot
|: In time will rise again. :|

In this song, Thyme=hope/virginity, and Rue=regret.